Well the highschool grid iron is full again on Friday nights the morning and night have a nice bite to it that must mean one thing! Duck Season!!! Welcome back everyone my off season was crazy busy! My girlfriend and I moved in together and have a place on Malletts Bay Ave next to all the farm fields geese flying like crazy!! The old man bought a new 19ft Smoker Craft with 90hp 4 stroke honda! Took it out in some 4.5fts felt safe as can be (Ready for divers on the main lake) How are you all doing?

As much as I plan for the season, it seems as though I am always behind come opener. Anyone else feel that way? All the chores are on hold now, it's time to hunt! I have found those who don't duck hunt, don't understand this addiction. Help me out by being active on this post.

dukk wrote:As much as I plan for the season, it seems as though I am always behind come opener. Anyone else feel that way? All the chores are on hold now, it's time to hunt! I have found those who don't duck hunt, don't understand this addiction. Help me out by being active on this post.

I understand 100% and so does my girlfriend which is a huge relief! She understands that its only a 3 months out of 12 the other 9 months I get all my honeydo's done;) not so much come duck season and football Sunday after 1pm. I always seem behind though come the opener cuz you don't know how the birds are..

Plus as soon as the shooting begins all those ducks that were hidden will be pushed! With the high water they are tucked away deep into the thicket but i'm sure those areas will start to freeze or have hunters in it soon enough!

Sure was a lot of mallards at the ferry docks today.I love calling out the window while waiting for the boat and having them float on over for a slice of bread.If only it was so easy when we are hunting!

WTN10 wrote: "Why do you assume I'm a genius? Have you ever considered that I'm average and that you're retarded?"

It is exciting to know that in 4 days the season will finally be here but i'm not setting my expectations high. The numbers are a lot lower than the past two years on the northern part of the lake. When we took the kids out youth weekend, they were lucky to get what they did! We hunted in the wild rice and on the first day of the youth season and 90% of the shooting was practically done within 10 -15 minutes after shooting time! The flood really did its toll this spring on bird numbers up here!

i got stuck in California for the next 3 years on Camp Pendleton. havent seen one single waterfowl since i got here or heard one fly over.i have to skip this season but the bright side is i'll have a new truck, boat, and trailer full of decoys when i get back. plus i get to take all my 30 days of leave next season in nov and dec to hunt.Good luck to all the Vt hunters this season!

Champney wrote:i got stuck in California for the next 3 years on Camp Pendleton. havent seen one single waterfowl since i got here or heard one fly over.i have to skip this season but the bright side is i'll have a new truck, boat, and trailer full of decoys when i get back. plus i get to take all my 30 days of leave next season in nov and dec to hunt.Good luck to all the Vt hunters this season!

Hey Champney! We'll have a few of your old dekes in the spread this year! Dad and I are all ready to go Wednesday morning, I even took the first 3 days of the season off from work to give 'em hell!

I have woodies and teal and blacks and mallards all in my spot! Went in tonight to drop some gear and do some final camo touch ups and set up the propane and the stove,got the heater hooked up,ready to rock and roll! But best of all there must have been 150 ducks just hanging out,mostly woodies,but they are fun shooting! Gonna have a banger in the am!!! Good Luck too everyone and may the ducks be plentiful and the shooting straight!

So how was everyones opening day? We had some shooting not a lot but more then last opener which had no shooting... Ended up with one wood duck.. Last light not nothing flying but planes over our heads.. That wood duck tasted great! I just want to quickly pass this along, Please! remember the ramp courtesy if you see someone loading there boat on the trailer don't continue to barel down the river to the ramp slow down a bit reduce the wake for others. Its not fun trying to load a big heavy boat on a trailer while waves are pounding it into the trailer and almost into the truck and rocks. Please keep it in mind

Well I had ducks steady all day on the lake,but only ended up with 3 woodies and two mallards(drake and hen) but everyone else limited out!Total we got 17 ducks! I could not hit a teal for the life of me yesterday! I do not know what was wrong with me but every one of those little F-16's were able to dodge my shots!

Couldn't complain with opener besides losing my wallet ended up getting to our spot early and thinking we where going to be golden until a bunch of people showed up half hour before legal and crowded our spot (little too close for comfort) ended up taking down 8 between the two of us before giving up looking for 2 of them after an hour + of walking through the marsh and nearly getting pelted by some steel that came wiping by my partner and I from one of the late guys and his kid shooting at a low bird.. Had to yell out some pretty unhappy words after that one. but after all was said and done we left with a smile on our face and some birds in the bag... How'd everybody else do?

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When people ask me what my favorite season in Vermont is, I simply reply. Duck

awefully quiet in here fellahs.... either no one is shooting, or everyone is limiting out.... lol.

What's going on? What are everyone's plans for the re-opener? Anyone busting up geese this week? We've had a hard time getting birds to land the past couple of days... looking forward to knocking down some more ducks this weekend.

I hunted last Saturday morning with a group and we got 6 geese, i mallard hen, 1 mallard drake and 3 mergs. It was the first time my 7 year old son ever went duck hunting to boot so it was a very cool day for us

RangerX wrote:By the way, were you down in Ferrisburgh during the opening week? Little Otter?

I hunted the Hawkins Landing (The Slang) the first 3 days of the opener. Were you there? We got skunked all three days but had 2 decoy Friday and we managed to miss them both, that was pretty frustrating BUT the thunder and lightining storm that morning was quite a sight to see.

I was watching the Thunder and lightning show while hunting Maquam Shore Friday morning. It kept lighting the sky up enough to see the Wind Turbines in norther NY, what a show! As soon as it got to the other side of the lake we got in the boat and took off, about 10 min after shooting time started. We dint have time to see a single bird, but that show was worth getting outa bed for.

RangerX wrote:By the way, were you down in Ferrisburgh during the opening week? Little Otter?

I hunted the Hawkins Landing (The Slang) the first 3 days of the opener. Were you there? We got skunked all three days but had 2 decoy Friday and we managed to miss them both, that was pretty frustrating BUT the thunder and lightining storm that morning was quite a sight to see.

We have a blind near the Lewis Creek Access, were there opening day. The next 4 days we launched at the South Slang access... lots of people there, not a ton a shooting. We were able to find a couple nice "out of the ordinary" spots where we got some good shooting in. By Sunday, it was a bit slim pickins.....

*edit. That thunderstorm was CRAZY... I'm glad my boat blind is waterproof... we were in the middle of the creek, thought a few times about running the boat in and hiding in the woods, lol.

Hello All ,I just joined the site today and have enjoyed reading the VT. postings .My season has consisted of hunting for sites such as this one .I have been wearing a leg cast for the last 5 wks.(3/4 more to go) and have ONLY been able to vicariously: set-up decoy spreads,call-in birds,and share in the successful hunts of others .In my area,the corn fields have been cut and manured and by the time this cast comes off,all of our ponds and potholes will be frozen so.....THANKS for posting those PICS....keep them coming..and SHOOT a few for me WONT`CHA !I